November 13, 2008

Quote Week, Day 4: Writing

By xgravity23 in NaBloPoMo, teaching 3 Comments Tags:

teacher's red ink

Ever since I started teaching, I have taught writing every semester. It was an interesting and scary thing: I had always earned good grades in writing, but never really understood why I was so good at it. On August 22, 2005, I stood in front of 22 freshman who were probably as scared of and anxious about college as I was about teaching (I hadn’t had a single “how to teach” class!). But the really cool thing that I learned that late summer day was that I am a born teacher. Thanks to the mentoring of the Composition Director and the leadership of the “second years,” my latent writing skills bubbled to the surface during that semester through activities and lessons. I realized that somewhere deep down, I did know what I was doing right in my writing, and I was able to convey it to my students.

And I’ve never looked back. I have always enjoyed writing, privately and for classes, and I easily transferred that passion to the classroom. It didn’t infect all my students, but I believe that I have passed it on to at least a few of my students. I love teaching writing and I enjoy finding new ways to convey the importance of pre-writing, drafting, and careful word choice. As I mentioned on the first day of Quote Week, I collect quotes, and I frequently use them in classes for freewriting activities. Without further ado, some of my favorite quotes about writing.

5+ Quotes About Writing

Language is the source of misunderstandings. Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Language exerts hidden power, like a moon on the tides. Rita Mae Brown

Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people. William Butler Yeats

As to the Adjective: when in doubt, strike it out. Mark Twain

Words build bridges into unexplored regions. Adolf Hitler

Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge. Winston Churchill

The writer is the engineer of the human soul. Joseph Stalin

A thought is a thing as real as a cannonball. Joseph Joubert

For me, words are a form of action, capable of influencing change. Ingrid Bengis

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God. Sidney Sheldon

Question of the Day

What is the most memorable thing you learned in a writing class?

Check Out These Related Posts

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.